VIVA CHUCK TODD

We recently came across a great blog, VIVA CHUCK TODD, dedicated to the inimitable msnbc political analyst Chuck Todd. The post, The Chuck Todd Experience by Amy Martin, had us laughing and nodding the entire way through. Here is an excerpt:

"When the talking heads are yelling and screaming at each other (memo to Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan–we can hear you, so dial it down a notch, okay?) and I’m about at the point of yelling and screaming at them, my head on the verge of exploding from trying to process all the useless back and forth and my jaw clenched tightly enough to wear down my fillings, someone suddenly says “Let’s turn it over to Chuck Todd for a check of the delegate count.”

And I exhale, the boiling blood draining from my face at the sight of Chuck Todd standing in front of what looks like the world’s most complicated overhead projector, dry erase marker in hand, ready to hurt you with the sweet, sweet pain of incontrovertible math."

In this political season, Chuck Todd indeed is like the "majestic Golden Retriever" and VIVA Chuck Todd has hit just the right note.

This is a MUST-READ and if you love Chuck Todd then their VIVA CHUCK t-shirt is a MUST-HAVE.

Navigating the political scene right now, just watching Chuck Todd and reading VIVA CHUCK TODD will lower your blood pressure, calm your shattered nerves and make you want to wade through all the rest just to hear someone say, "Let's turn it over to Chuck Todd for a check of the delegate count."

Thanks to VIVA CHUCK TODD for bringing Chuck into the limelight where he so belongs!

Coming Soon

Coming Soon - our series on Alan Greenspan

Fair Share Tax

First, what is meant by Fair Share? We hear it bandied about all the time, mostly by politicians, and it usually refers to taxing the wealthy corporations - the ones with those huge profits - so that they will pay their fair share. But think for a moment. Do corporations really just absorb that tax and let us off the hook? Of course not! This is a politcian's trick. Economics 101 teaches us that companies can't bear taxes, only people can. The companies, in effect, collect taxes for the government by passing that tax on to all of us - customers, employees and stockholders. The costs of our goods and services and the prices we pay for those goods and services just go up. See what we mean?

© Mark Poprocki - Fotolia.com

If you can understand this simple argument then pat yourself on the back. You are one step closer to getting out of the Booboisie!

Scott McClellan - Unwitting Dupe?

Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary has released his new book, WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington in a few Washington bookstores this week. It is scheduled for universal release on June 2, 2008.



McClellan came with Bush from Texas and first served in the White House as Deputy Communications Director under Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary.



White House Biography:

Scott McClellan -- White House
Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary
Most recently, Scott McClellan served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary.

Before joining the White House staff, he was the traveling press secretary for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign. Scott began working for Governor Bush in early 1999 as deputy communications director. Prior to joining the Governor's office, he served as chief of staff to a Texas state senator, worked on grassroots outreach for lawsuit reform in Texas and managed three successful statewide campaigns.

Scott is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.



From the washingtonpost.com:

The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he calls Vice President Cheney "the magic man" who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.

McClellan stops short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and his subordinates were not "employing out-and-out deception" to make their case for war in 2002.

But in a chapter titled "Selling the War," he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option."

"Over that summer of 2002," he writes, "top Bush aides had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the war. . . . In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president's advantage."

McClellan, once a staunch defender of the war from the podium, comes to a stark conclusion, writing, "What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary."

McClellan resigned from the White House on April 19, 2006, after nearly three years as Bush's press secretary. The departure was part of a shake-up engineered by new Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten that also resulted in Rove surrendering his policy-management duties.

Time and time again, Scott McClellan stepped to the podium to spout the White House line. Did he have misgivings at some point but just kept giving us what the White House wanted to give out: did he know at some point that what he was spouting was a pack of lies; did he blindly spout the White House line and become an unwitting dupe?

Whatever the case, the ranks have been broken big time and we will have to see what the impact of this book will have on us, the people.

Hillary Clinton's gaffe? RFK Assassination

Friday afternoon, Hillary Clinton told the editorial board of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Argus Leader that "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said.

Be sure to have your volume turned on

What did she mean exactly? Did she simply misspeak? (DO the Clintons misspeak?) Was the stress on June and did she mean that many times the Democratic nomination isn't wrapped up until June? By all accounts, her husband actually had the nomination wrapped up in late March 1992. Additionally, the Democratic primary in 1968 had only begun in March so by June, there had not been a protracted race. Was there a more sinister meaning to her assassination reference? We really don't know what she meant but we would love to hear your take on this controversial incident.

Senator Ted Kennedy Hospitalized

It has been awhile since we have posted but today we received the sad news the Senator Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor. Whatever your politics, we hope you will join us in sending our prayers and good wishes to Senator Kennedy and his family.